Wow! Close to another month gone by again. The Mothers' Day Studio Tour went very well. Sold lots of prints, some originals and a lot of books. Had people talk about being interested in commissioning a portrait from me, but we'll wait and see how that goes.

Paul and I are off on a road trip now. We've settled in Getzville, New York for a week, helping out with family stuff. It's been nice for Paul to visit with family and child-hood friends, since he grew up here. It's been a fun visit for me as well. We went meandering around yesterday, going through some of the surrounding small towns, and stopped at a lovely restaurant called The Boat House in Wilson, then got a nice picture of Lake Erie from Olcott. It was a nice, relaxing day. We'll be here through the weekend, then hit the road again on Monday.We'll be heading back to S. Dakota and Wyoming, so I plan to promote my book as much as I can. We'll see where it goes from there. I'm almost ready to publish the e-book of ICE, then it'll be time to begin the final process of The Navarre Link, Volume one! We're off and running now!

Wow! I have been so busy, I haven't had time to bring things up to date.The Mother's Day Studio Tour starts tomorrow, and I have been running around getting everything set up for it. The only glitch so far, is that my book ICE won't get here until Saturday. Thank goodness this tour lasts over the two weekends, and not just the one! But, everything has come together. It's raining today, but the forecast is for a nice weekend, with each day getting better as we go. Hold that thought!

This piece has been causing me headaches, for sure! I knew I needed something else in there, to make the whole scene more interesting, and to balance things out a little bit. Standing there and staring at it this morning, it came to me in a flash! A Skull! There it is, something for the characters to be looking at, other than a dry river bed, and what better way to suggest that these three might be in trouble than to show a previous traveler to these parts?

I've just completed this little graphite drawing. It's entitled 'Dumpin' Duncan'. If I decide to illustrate my books, I will likely use this one along with some others I have rattling around in my brain.I'll be starting another graphite drawing later this week.

Working hard to get ready for the Mothers' Day Studio Tour. I have two new pastels in the works, and I hope to get a couple of more pieces done in time.

There's been a small set-back with publishing ICE. Outlaws Publishing and I have gone our separate ways. Not sure what the problem was so maybe we can just mark it up as 'creative differences'. That's a good catch-phrase.

Anyway, no worries. I am giving ICE another thorough proof-reading and then Eric and I will be getting together to publish it on Create Space. I'm thinking this is going to be a better way to go. So, those of you waiting for the paperback, I hope to have it available by the end of next month.

In the meantime, here's the two pastels I'm working on. Both are nearing completion but not quite there yet.

Wow! March already! The Mother's Day Studio Tour is going to be here before we know it. Still working on building my portfolio, but I probably have enough pieces for the show now. Too many is better than too few, plus I have to get some more prints made up. Money, money!I want to get a few graphite drawings done as well. I have a couple laid out in rough but haven't gotten down to them yet.

Well, here we are, another new year. If '18 goes by as quickly as '17 did, I'm not going to be getting much done. Or is it, the busier you are, the faster time goes!Christmas was a little different this year. Hubby and I went out for our anniversary dinner on the 24th, and wouldn't you know it, we got snow! I can't remember the last time we had snow for Christmas. I just wish it had held off a couple of hours so we could get home all right.As it was, three minutes from our front door, cars were getting stuck on the hill, and nobody was going anywhere. Not wanted to risk getting zinged by out of control vehicles, we decided to turn around and spend the night at my studio. One we thing we learned from this venture is that neither of our sofas at the studio make for a comfortable night! But, driving home Christmas morning, we're glad we did what we did. Cars everywhere, on the side of the road and in the ditches. It might have been an uncomfortable night, but both us and the car got home safely.

The snow lasted through Christmas Day, then began to melt on Boxing Day. Now, New Year's Day, it's all gone. I'm back at my studio and settling in to a new project. Not just a western scene now, but a WINTER western scene. I don't think I have ever seriously attempted snow before, so this is a new challenge.As usual, I won't know what I've got until it's done!​​

Here we are, half way through December, and no one who wanted portraits done for Christmas have come through. Typical. Still, I had a couple who gave me down payments, and even they haven't gotten the photos to me. I guess they don't really want them for Christmas.In any case, I am still staying very busy. I know have most of the elements ready for the book cover. I just need to get together with Eric so we can play around with it on photoshop. Then, of course, there's figuring out the publishing site! That's next on the list. But, we're getting there!Now, all we have to do is bring these three paintings into one image, and add the text. No problem.